ALK CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone - ALK CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone

Summary

Our Score

9/10

Review Price free/subscription

The three premium services, unsurprisingly, are far more significant for the regular traveller. The Live Traffic system still relies on TMC for its data, but provides the option to use mobile data connectivity instead of FM radio to download updates. Since the latter requires extra hardware, and the former is more reliable and frequent anyway, it’s the best choice, and makes CoPilot’s Live Traffic quite powerful. You can browse a list of current jams by road number, or call up a map overview. Individual incidents are grouped under their road number, allowing you to drill down to find more details about each one, and choose to avoid any that could seriously impede your journey. Your route will then be calculated around the gridlock.

Live Local Search extends the POI database considerably in the same way as the Google Local Search included with TomTom’s Live Services. It allows you to search an Internet-based database for destinations nearby or in another city. Many of the results also include phone numbers, and like the Roadside Assistance you can call these directly from the iPhone to check details such as opening times prior to setting off.

The final premium Live feature, Fuel Prices, again parallels TomTom’s Live services. Aside from just calling up a list of petrol stations nearby, at your destination or in another city, it also provides the current pricing for the fuel type of your choice, so you can choose the cheapest option. We found the results were generally accurate, although not always.

For those who don’t go for the additional Live capabilities, all the usual range of sat-nav features are available as standard, too. In fact, there’s nothing missing compared to a regular standalone sat-nav. You can navigate to an address or full 7-digit UK postcode, although this follows the traditional city-street-house number routine as there is no option to search for a street across the entire country. A comprehensive Points of Interest (POI) database is also included, offering a full range of categories, and you can search this freely by name, although only nearby, within a city, or along a currently loaded route.

A Quick Stop option lets you route to a subset of nearby POIs without wading through the full interface. These include Petrol Stations, Restaurants, Hotels, and Vehicle Repair facilities. You can also save Favourites for future use or scroll through a list of recently found locations. There’s even a route planner allowing you to create journeys with multiple waypoints, which you can save and recall when required.